I have a string variable which contains HTML tags. Is it possible to the jQuery selector to pick a certain HTML element?

To be more specific, I have a javascript variable which contains a row of a table<TR><TD>value1</TD> <TD>value2</TD> <TD>value3</TD> <TD>value4</TD> <TD>value5</TD></TR>How can I the value of third TD's value, i.e., value3

I have created a table which has zero records on page load. On click of a button I am fetching data in the form of JSON using an external AJAX call. I need to load this JSON into the already existing data table.

I read through the examples and older discussions which suggests the usage of "sAjaxSource" option and "fnReloadAjax" function to load the data into data table. To my understanding it works only if make use of DataTable's built in AJAX feature.

How can I load the externally fetched JSON into an existing data table.